Just Friends?
by PaperPrince
Summary: In which John accidentally has an affair without knowing it. Or how Sarah learns the hard way why it's a bad idea to try and date colleagues. Established Johnlock AU. Can be seen as a stand alone fic or squeal to 3,554 miles


When Sarah first sees the name Dr Watson-Holmes on her list of interviewees for the part time doctor's position at the clinic she assumes from the surname that the Doctor is either, female, married and far too independent to give up her maiden name or male pretentious rich and privately educated. She is therefore nicely surprised to discover Dr Watson-Holmes is instead a youngish blue eyed blond haired ex-army doctor with a rather impressive CV and years of experience.

That he's somewhat over qualified for the simple position and also freely admits to working another job, he has a partnership with some sort of private detective who solves crimes for the police, should be a drawback especially as he explains he may need time off at short notice.

Sarah finds herself being swayed however by his nice smile and the fact he doesn't smell like the newly qualified twenty something vegan did and he's wearing shoes (something the the red haired Doctor from Los Angeles had found unnecessary) and well she'd rather not get started on the strangeness that was Dr Smith. Deciding to give him a chance given the dreadfulness of the other applicants she goes ahead hires him despite the oddness of his surname.

If she ogles his bum as he leaves the surgery then well at least she's not the only one, for she catches old Mrs Higgs gaping as well.

Dr Watson-Holmes or John as he tells everyone to call him makes a rather a rather refreshing addition to a clinic made up almost entirely women and is a significant improvement on sixty-one year old divorcee Dr Gibson (who until John's arrival had been the youngest male doctor in the clinic's employ). In comparison to Dr Gibson who could be grabby and who constantly asks the nurses for tea (he did really belong to another era and it was fortunate he was retiring soon) John's very much a modern gentleman, helpful without prompting and generally sweet to everyone. He even brings in biscuits made by his landlady for the staff meetings.

Despite his absurd fondness for jumpers Sarah finds herself terribly attracted to John's boyish charm and it doesn't take long for Sarah to catch herself taking second glances every time John passes by.

Determining John's relationship status is made difficult by rules regarding discrimination and potential workplace harassment and his lack of a facebook account. Sitting in the local library trawling the internet for further information regarding John seems terribly creepy and stalker like (and not to mention difficult for a computer-less technophobe who had barely mastered using her microwave) so Sarah gives up as a bad job after receiving a very creepy yet equally polite email from the internet police asking her not pry into the lives of others.

Undeterred by her brief internet scare Sarah decides to take a gamble and ask him out anyway before someone else snapped him up for judging by the admiring looks Cathy the receptionist was throwing him every time he stopped by reception to use the photocopier it wouldn't be too long before she attempted something herself.

Wearing her lowest heels so as to avoid towering over him, Sarah boldly invites him for coffee at the nearby Criterion.

"Yes alright um just hold on a minute, I just need to finish up with Mr Pratchett's notes first." John replies looking up from his desk. Sarah prays he can't hear how his words make her heart flutter loudly in her chest.

They only have time for a brief drink but even so Sarah learns rather a lot about John's thrilling work solving crimes and even more about the genius that is Sherlock his partner in crime.

Sarah is especially pleased to find going on coffee dates with John quickly becomes a regular thing as does eating lunch together in the staff room on the days he happens to be working at the clinic. Admittedly John spends most of that time either talking about Sherlock, work or his dog Gladstone but somehow he manages to make even this sound interesting.

Sarah was also glad he appreciated her enough to ask her advice.

"Hey Sarah I was wondering if you could help me? I'm having trouble thinking of something for Sherlock's birthday present, besides the obvious gift that is."

"What's the obvious gift?"

"Sex."

Sarah flushes slightly at the brashness of his joke but laughs just the same.

"He's a bit of a sex manic then?"

"Oh definitely," replies John grinning. "Mrs Hudson's banged on the walls more than once in the middle of the night trying to get him to shut the hell up. God knows I've tried. Maybe I should get him a gag?"

"Well if you think it might help?" She replies not completely serious.

"Maybe" replies John taking a sip of his tea.

The more they go out the deeper a connection Sarah feels the two of them making. They don't have those awkward relationship talks or publicly announce their relationship but then they don't need to really as everyone at the surgery seems to know about how she feels about John already. All of them even nosey Cathy (who keeps giving her the strangest looks recently) tell her they're there for her if she needs to talk (about what she doesn't know).

John in particular seems to want to take things slow for despite numerous dates he has yet to kiss her, something Sarah can't help find terribly romantic given that so many men want only an easy shag.

Despite the physical side of things in their relationship still not happening, Sarah decides not to concern herself too much. After all John's a gentleman and his decision to go slow is fine, as it comes to her that his early joining of the army and quiet nature may have resulted in him… lacking expertise in the physical area of their love. Besides his frequent reminders in his faithfulness amuses her in their randomness, like his regaling the incident of Mrs Farrow to her one slow afternoon in the surgery.

"You know what's funny? Mrs Farrow keeps trying to set me up on a date with her daughter. I keep telling her I'm not interested but I don't think she gets it."

Besides she enjoys spending evenings with him watching musicals and drinking wine. Even if they do have a tendency of only occurring after John has had yet another blazing row with Sherlock. It becomes a bit of a pattern John will eat a tub of ice cream while mad at Sherlock and Sarah will listen to him whine and let him stay over.

"Thanks Sarah, you're such a good mate." He says curling up on her sofa and going to sleep. After staying over John will treat her to breakfast that is usually interrupted by a delivery guy brandishing an apologetic look and an expensive bunch of flowers with John's name on them..

As much as she finds John and Sherlock's friendship adorable Sarah can't help but begin to feel that progress would be made if not for Sherlock constantly being the third wheel. John's far too polite to say anything but she can tell he would prefer some alone time for just the two of them.

Despite her patience the lack of actual progress between them starts to drive her mad. She tries to be understanding, she really does, knowing that John's schedule is pretty tight owing to his police work but even still she can't help but feel slightly irritated every time he brushes off an invite to the cinema in order to spend the evening with Sherlock.

Hoping to remind John that she is in fact a woman and to encourage the physical side of their relationship at the same time Sarah takes the morning off work to get a haircut, a new dress and a manicure. With her hair now resembling something less like a bird's nest Sarah carefully does her make-up applying it properly and taking the time to do eye liner rather than just a quick bit of polish and blusher as is her usual routine. Admiring herself in the mirror Sarah considers her money and time well spent for as lovely as she looks normally, today she is gorgeous. Her make over complete she heads off to work eager to surprise John. On the way she receives many admiring looks from passer-by's which adds to her confidence.

Once at the surgery she discovers from Cathy that he's gone with Nurse Janet to the newly opened Italian restaurant for lunch.

Upset and feeling terribly betrayed Sarah's first thought is to head over to the restaurant and confront the two of them in the midst of their torrid affair; in fact she does so fully intending to scream her head off at John. Once inside the restaurant however she finds that the two of them are not alone but with another man, laughing and chatting away merrily together. The curly haired man is somewhat familiar and it takes her a few moments to realise that he's the man smiling and holding a dog in front of the Eiffel Tower in John's desktop background, his partner and flatmate (according to John's emergency contact details they share the same address) Sherlock.

Sarah momentarily debates hiding behind a rather tall plant pot but hesitates to long and finds herself being spotted by Janet who smiles and beckons her over, scooting over in the booth in order to let her sit down.

"Wow you look lovely Sarah, meeting someone special?" she asks completely innocently.

Embarrassed by her lack of trust in John, who is obviously trying to play matchmaker with Janet and Sherlock, Sarah quickly formulates a lie concocting a tale about cancelled plans with a childhood friend. Sherlock raises an eyebrow at her words but says nothing until Janet has gone outside for a cigarette and John to the toilet.

The others gone they sit in silence, Sherlock fiddling with his half touched pasta as Sarah sips at her diet lemonade. The silence goes on for exactly three minutes before Sherlock looks up and fixes his steely grey eyes on her.

"Do you have something you want me to sign or is meeting me enough for you?" He asks sounding terribly bored.

Sarah looks at him somewhat startled and confused wondering where all his charm from earlier had gone. Sherlock tilts his head to his side in a rather disturbing manner and seems to read something from her expression.

"You're a fan just like Janet. Why else would you sit here for the last half hour listening to her gushing in admiration of John's blog? You've obviously gone to some effort to make yourself look presentable, indicating you want to impress someone. That waffle about a school friend was a blatant lie, not that the others noticed. Obviously you heard from Janet about this meeting and decided to crash it in order to meet me. It's fine, I'm somewhat used to it being internet famous." He says waving his hand dismissively.

Understanding blooms in her head, as Sarah realises he's talking about that silly little blog John was fond of talking about the one he kept about his adventures with Sherlock, irritated by Sherlock's big headedness yet unable to explain herself without revealing her distrust of John the denial dies on her tongue.

Thankfully John and Janet return shortly afterward.

Try as she might to put her doubts about their relationship aside the strain seems to build as John continues to put Sherlock first, cancelling plans in favour of helping Sherlock out. As much as she should hate him for it, she knows that Sherlock needs John, he's a part of his work and his best friend and Sarah really can't compete with that.

Eventually she can take it no more and decides to end things and put the both of them out of their misery before things get really serious between them.

Deciding the personal approach was best, she invites him to the café where they'd shared their first date.

"John I don't think this is working." She says bluntly, steeling her resolve in preparation for his heartbreak.

"I just can't take coming second to Sherlock anymore."

John looks at her bewildered.

"What are you on about?"

"No John let me finish. I can't date you anymore John, I don't think it's fair to either of us."

"But we're not"

"Shhhhh" Sarah says placing her index finger over his lip.

"John listen to me this has nothing to do with your inexperience I just feel that were better off alone."

"I know this is hard for you John but I'm sure there's someone out there perfect for you. Someone who can put up your controlling room-mate and who thinks that your weird obsession with tea and jumpers is cute, but I can't be that someone anymore."

John just stares at her in shock. Sarah takes his hand a squeezes it comfortingly.

"I hope we can still be friends…" she adds. Her words seem to shake John out of his stupor.

John shakes his hand free of her grip.

"Sarah I'm sorry if I somehow gave you the impression I liked you but we were never dating. I'm married to Sherlock, something I pretty sure I told you.

Seeing her shocked expression he takes his hand off the table and pulls out a card and hands it to her.

"Sarah I think you should have this," he says looking at her worriedly.

"It's the number to a really good therapist. She doesn't judge, and she might help you with your problems." He places the money for the coffee on the table, tells her he'll finish up the rest of the week at the clinic and then leaves.

"Sherlock will never believe this," he thinks pulling out his phone.

* * *

With special thanks for those who listened and helped shape this fic!


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